Hourglass
by The Fountian Pen
Summary: Grant Ward never believed he would recieve a second chance. Nor did he believe he deserved one. In the two years since Hydra stepped forth into the light, all that remained of his team was Jemma Simmons. With SHIELD on the verge of another collapse a knock on his door, just may give him the second chance he craved.


A/N: Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers, Captain America, or Thor it is without prejudice property of Marvel Comics/Entertainment/Studios Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, Marvel Studios, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Joss Whedon, Stan Lee, Jack do I own Marvel's Agents of SHEILD; it is property of Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon,Maurissa Tancharoen,Stan Lee, Alan Fine, Joe Quesada, Jeffery Bell, Jeph Loeb,Garry A. Brown, ABC Studios, Mutant Enemy Productions, Marvel Television, and Disney ABC demestic television. Nor do I own the X-Men, it too is without prejudice property of Marvel Comics/ Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, Marvel Entertainment, The Donners' Company. I own only my original characters. In other words, if you recognize it I don't own it. I own only my original characters. In other words, if you recognize it I don't own it.I claim ownership of only my original characters. If contacted this will be removed.

AU...oh so AU...of season two (and season one...sorta...it'll be explained)

Never did Jemma Simmons think she would reach this moment.

Her younger cousin stood across the room, hooking a crooked finger around the curtain to gaze out at the raging storm. Curled up on the couch tucked under a heavy throw, her body still trembled beneath the wool even in a pair of borrowed clothes and a heavy terrycloth robe cinched tightly around her waist,and a mug of hot tea clasped between her palms, her eyes locked on her cousins back. Outside the storm raged, thunder roared in the distance, and bolts of lightning light up the dark streets of Rio and illuminated the displeased scowl on her cousin's face.

Back still facing Jemma, her cousin finally broke the silence. "Do you have any idea, what your asking?"

Letting the blanket pool in her lap, Jemma sat forward placing her tea cup on the glass coffee table and frowned down at her hands. "I do. Mara, you must know I would never ask..."

"If you weren't desperate." Mara finished, letting the gauzy curtain sway back into place, she finally turned and crossed her arms across her chest. Jemma grinned weakly, it had been years since her cousin had ever finished one of her thoughts. As children, during Jemma's few short years at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, she and Mara had always been as close as sisters. They had done everything together, even their practical jokes and quickly earning themselves the monikers Mischief and Mayhem. Before she had met Fitz at the Academy it had been Mara who seemed to know instinctively what she was thinking and even anticipating her movements, and like with Fitz she had been able to do the same. Now it was all to apparent that the girl that Jemma had once knew so well and loved so dearly was gone. The kind countenance and warm hazel green eyes, that always seemed to glimmer with a spark of mischief, and deadpan sense of humor was a wisp of a memory; had been replaced by a stony facade and a bitter cynicism burning in her eyes. The last few years had truly taken it toll on them all and Jemma had never missed the girl her cousin had once been more. Only made the regret of letting their bond slowly splinter all the more gut wrenching.

Over their years with SHIELD their close friendship had begun to deteriorate, Jemma had gone into the field leaving little time for leisure phone calls between crisies, while Mara had become a surgeon and too had been recruited by SHIELD fresh out of internship, and assigned to Triskelion's in house surgical ward. It wasn't like Mara had an abundance of more time to spare, especially with the alarming regularity Specialists and Field Agents needed medical attention, but to Jemma's guilt at least twice a week she found a voice mail or e-mail from her cousin waiting for her, but when she had been embracingly negligent of one of her closest family members, over her next year on the Bus, the messages had dwindled until they finally tapered off. The last time they'd talked had been nearly two years ago right after SHIELD had fallen to Hydra. Unlike her cousin Mara had jumped ship a few months later, heading back to Westchester and joining up with the X-Men. Jemma couldn't help but feel slightly betrayed when Mara had left, leaving an already precarious organization short another pair of skilled hands...(and regretfully after Ward she had seen betrayal to readily) it had taken Fitz pointing it out that she had lost the right to criticize her cousin when she had been responsible for the implosion of their relationship.

Which only left her feeling all the more guilty, when four months later the X-Men had emerged from the shadows to take the super powered fight to Hydra and even though they never formally joined with SHIELD they had adopted their cause. Things had been looking up...finally there looked to be a turn in the tide.

They'd been wrong.

Hydra hadn't floundered for long before they brought their own super soldiers to the battle(somehow they had managed to replicate the Captain America formula). Storm had fallen first to a team of super's, then Skye in an explosion, Coulson, Scott, and finally Fitz and May in a surprise attack on the Playground. Ward was still alive, Jemma knew for certain (much to her bitter resentment), living a quiet life in Brussels free from both Hydra and SHIELD. A year ago, Jemma would have jumped on the intel wanting nothing more than Grant Ward locked away in a tiny cell, forgotten, but now that fight had sustained her through SHIELD's fall, an undercover op in Hydra, and a few months ago venturing into the field, was gone. Her team was gone, her parents were in an underground black ops base in Wales (and basically incommunicado), Bobbi was now paralyzed from the waist down after saving her on a mission in Berlin, soon SHIELD would crumble into dust...and go down in history as terrorist organization.

Jemma couldn't let that happen.

Her last hope was Mara.

Mara who had been sent to parts and purpose unknown by the Professor. It had taken an impromptu sojourn out to Salem Center to beg a favor of her old mentor. Professor X had been cautious with the brutal losses his beloved team had sustained, but after a quick tiptoe through her mind he rolled off to his desk and scribbled something down on a spare sheet of paper with his favorite fountain pen. The coordinates had lead her to a small,garishly painted,apartment building in Rio De Janeiro. Finding Mara's apartment hadn't been to difficult, after the Professor had warned her that her cousin had changed over the last year and now preferred the clear line of sight that the penthouse offered (despite her once crippling fear of heights), as there was only one unit on the forth floor.

Mara had been expecting her, no doubt warned by either Logan or Kitty, impending arrival and had barley batted a lash when Jemma had knocked, looking more like a drenched kitten than a homo-sapien after getting caught umbrella-less in the downpour. With a frighteningly blank expression Mara waved her in and herded her toward the bathroom, bidding her to grab a dry set of clothes from her dresser she excused herself to got start the tea kettle. Comfortably dressed in clean dry clothes she'd ambled out into the living room and perched herself on the plush white couch that faced the curtained wall of windows. She smiled when she pulled grandma Sullivan's afghan off the back of the couch and draped it around herself, craving warmth. Things had only gone down hill from there, leading toward this awkward moment.

"Please, Jem...think about what you're asking. You know the science, this...this could prove disastrous. Worse than anything we have ever faced...it's madness to take such a stupid risk. " The brunette cautioned, running her fingers through her hair and fisted them, giving herself a grounding tug.

"I know Lorenz's definition of chaos states 'when the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future'. I understand, that all to clearly. I know the moment I arrive, this reality will cease to exist. That it maybe worse, but Mara, we're failing...it already is a disaster. My team is gone, SHIELD is teetering on the precipice, and the X-men are battered. And I fear soon the full weight of Hydra will fall upon them and what remains of the Avengers." Jemma gazed up at her cousin with beseeching eyes.

Mara clenched her eyes closed tightly and pinched the bridge of her nose. Jemma could understand her immense hesitation, for years Professor Xavier had viewed her powers as dangerous. With as precarious as science deemed time travel, having the ability to alter time with a single touch was more than concerning...it was down right terrifying. Mara had been lucky, that before her power had been defined, that she had not caused irreparable harm. So much like Rogue, her cousin had been forced to wear gloves to avoid her palms coming in contact with bared skin, the last thing Professor X needed was one of his faculty or students sent back to the Alamo or the War of the Roses. It had taken years but, Jean and the Professor had used common house plants to hone her ability. After all a potted ficus appearing at Independence Hall during the signing of the Declaration of Independence might startle a few of America's founding father's but it certainly wouldn't creat a rip in the space time continuum. Nearly two years into her training she had been able to send her plants back in time around the mansion. After a few weeks, few flinched when a potted palm would suddenly appear in the middle of class, Logan however took umbridge when once Mara had overshot her time slot and the Wolverine ended up cuddling a cactus on his motorcycle.

By fourteen she had gained (a modicum of) control and while she was still forced to wear gloves she had been given the Professor's blessing to attend University (genius after all did run in Sullivan/Simmons clan, thank you very much). Even with her improved control as a surgeon, touch was a necessary evil. Still her worrying slip in control when her mind was occupied elsewhere, she refused to touch a patient with a her bare hands choosing to always keep a supply of latex gloves handy for any examinations. Even now standing in her own parlor she still wore the emerald silk mittens Jean and Scott had given her a few years back for Christmas.

Perching on the arm of the matching white chair, sitting catty corner to the couch, Mara allowed her head to fall into her hands. Taking a moment to gather the dregs of her patience, the younger woman finally looked up, surveying her with appraising hazel eyes. "Tell me the truth, Jemma. Is this about Fitz...about your team?"

Jemma flinched at the mention of her best friend and team members. "I'd be lying if I said the thought that this may save them, isn't a factor; but this is bigger than me and the people I love. Everything is crumbling around us. SHIELD's number of active agents is now down to the double digits. When SHIELD finally falls...and it will...you know it as well...it will be for good. That terrifies me."

Hands gripping her knees with bruising intensity, Mara turned her eyes toward the darkened kitchen unseeingly, eyes flashed a glowing silver. A vision. She was perusing her options, reading what little she could from the quick flashes. Jemma held her breath watching as Mara's hands began to tremble as she pushed further, delving deeper into the future her next choice could create. Minuets ticked by, the thunder crept in off the water, lightning crackled and flashed brightly out side the windows, as Jemma waited. Reaching for her tea, she sipped at her bracing cup of Earl Gray and drummed her blunt nails against the side of the delicate china, in a desperate attempt to distract herself. This was no easy decision to make, her cousin had lost people as well. Scott and Storm both had meant a great deal to the surgeon. Mara had no doubt considered doing exactly what Jemma was requesting, but fear and possibly a vision of making everything worse had stilled her hand. Jemma gasped, and nearly split her tea on her lap, when silver fully eclipsed Mara's iris and her body gave a frightening twitch.

She cried her name, hastily dropping her cup and saucer in her haste she scrambled to her feet to rush to her cousin's aid but her feet got snagged in the blanket and very nearly sent her careening head first into unforgiving glass of the table. Freeing her feet Jemma, staggered forward when she nearly tipped forward off the arm, and would have cracked her skull on the unyielding floor, if she hadn't grasped her shoulders. Giving her a firm shake, Jemma called out to her again hoping to draw her cousin back to reality.

Then Mara blinked and when her lids next opened her eyes were a familiar hazel. Mara gave a slight snort at Jemma's distress and flashed her a chagrined smile(and Jemma nearly startled at a sudden display of emotion, the first flash of the girl she used to be). "Sorry, I should have warned you that might happen."

Jemma's voice bordered on an octive only audible to dogs, when she spoke. "What the bloody hell was that?"

"Christ, not so loud!" Mara admonished with a winced, reaching up to jiggle her earlobe to regain function. Once the buzzing drone cleared she grasped her cousin by the shoulders, stood and pushed her back toward the couch, before taking a seat on the wooden edge that encased the glass-top of her coffee table. Jemma watched as Mara nudged her tea cup further away from her hip, before leaning forward elbows on knees and hands clasped in a white knuckled grip. "I should have warned you, about that. It happens sometimes when I push deeper into a vision. When I do that I'm prone to little twitches, the Professor said its because when I press deeper, I open my mind to the emotion of the scene. And the twitches are my body's reaction to foreign stimuli. Its not damaging, just draining."

Jemma heaved a sigh, before giving the cause of her distress a swift punch to the clavicle. Collapsing back into the soft foam of the couch, Jemma hitched the blankets around her legs, and gazed hopefully at her stoic cousin. Pursing her lips Mara flicked a lock of her brown hair out of her eyes. "It was better than I expected."

Jemma was barely able to swallow the a hopeful gasp. "But I can't send you back."

And just as quickly as her spirit rose in joy it plummeted back into despair. "But you said..."

Mara held up a gloved hand. "I know what I said, Jemma. I said it was better than I expected, not that it was ideal."

Tears flooded her brown eyes, and held her breath to stifle the sob that was building at the back of her throat. She had been so sure. So certain that this was the only logical course of action. "I don't care about ideal." she whispered in a thick voice. Dark emotional brown clashing with inscrutable green. "I was so sure, Mara. I just want them back, I want my life before Hydra back. I want to fix this Mara, please there has to be a way."

Mara's smile was small, a welcoming flash of the young girl that had been her rock once upon a time, and reached forward to clasp Jemma's cold hands. "I said I couldn't send you. I never said I couldn't send someone else."

Wide hopeful eyes glistened, and hands tightened convulsively around the younger woman's wrist. "Who?"

The single word was a whisper of jubilation. Full of longing and love.

Mara grimaced. "Yeah, no we're getting to the part, you're really not gonna like."

Jemma's brows twitched downward, and the corner of her grinning mouth tipped down. This time when she asked it was no longer a silent prayer of Hallelujah. "Who?"

Mara gave her a quelling look, that spoke sternly that if she were to throw a tantrum it would not be met with sympathy.

"Grant Ward."


End file.
